At 95, Chicago-based guitarist George Freeman is among the world’s oldest active jazz musicians. Although he came of musical age in the 1940s and counts figures like Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and Coleman Hawkins among his influences, his own trajectory has led him from gigging alongside Bird himself through forays into soul jazz, big-band swing, R&B, post-fusion jazz-funk and beyond, while never losing his core identity as a bebopper. Along the way he’s traveled and/or recorded with artists as diverse as Les McCann, Gene Ammons, Wild Bill Davis, Shirley Scott, Buddy Rich, Jackie Wilson, Chicago blues harmonica ace Billy Branch, and AACM bassist Harrison Bankhead, to name just a few.
Freeman was mentored by his older brother Von, a tenor man who went on to become one of the city’s most beloved postbop stylists and whose son Chico has himself garnered an international reputation as a saxophonist. George’s oldest brother, Bruz, also played a significant
